General Information

California College of the Arts (CCA)

CCA is pleased to host the 2016 National Conference for Individualized Major Programs. Individualized major programs (IMPs) help students to design a rigorous yet tailored undergraduate curricula. This annual conference provides a forum for those teaching and studying in IMPs to present original research, exchange pedagogical innovations, discuss challenges, and brainstorm and workshop new ideas. It also provides the opportunity for those interested in IMPs to learn about the development of such programs and their relevance to other curricular objectives in the academy. Finally the conference advances innovation in the domains of self-structured learning models, and modes of productive multidisciplinary hybridity.

Individualized Programs

Individualized major programs offer highly motivated and self-directed undergraduate students the opportunity to design their own course of study. As an alternative to traditional majors, IMPs allow students to pursue their educational goals in areas not available within an existing departmental curriculum. Students, with the help of faculty mentors and professional advisors, focus their major and select courses on the basis of a unifying issue, topic, or question called an area of concentration.

An individualized major is typically highly interdisciplinary and combines at least two distinct areas of knowledge. Also characteristic of an individualized major is the ability to integrate professional training with the liberal arts and sciences.